


A Friend in Need

by bmlhillenkeene



Series: DC Comics Verse [2]
Category: Impulse (Comics), Young Justice (Comics)
Genre: Friendship, insecure!Bart Allen, protective!Kon El, protective!Tim Drake
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-04
Updated: 2016-04-04
Packaged: 2018-05-30 13:33:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6425953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bmlhillenkeene/pseuds/bmlhillenkeene
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tim and Kon are really starting to notice Bart's absence and they want to know why.</p><p>He's been so serious lately what with the problems with Max at home, and they've tried not to push too hard, but they miss their happy-go-lucky friend, despite how much they pretend to hate the way he acts like an idiot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Friend in Need

**Author's Note:**

> follow up to Impulsive Decisions, because Tim and Kon needed their chance to make Bart feel better. And I like the three of them very much.
> 
> It sort of got away from me and wanted to maybe be a multichapter, I may or may not get back to this soon. but for now it's a one shot!

Tim frowned, fingers flying across his keyboard in an attempt to keep himself from fidgeting outright. If anyone asked he was hacking a secure system with a firewall that changed every 6 seconds. Because it wouldn't do for Robin to look worried. And he was.

It had been 6 weeks since he had seen Impulse, and it felt like years since he had last seen Bart Allen and not the pod person version of him that had popped up while Max had been sick. It was almost like someone had done a whole personality switch, and that had worried Tim. But he'd been busy himself, and he knew how hard it could be to deal with the idea of losing someone you loved, especially so slowly as Max had been fading.

But since the news that Max was better had filtered to him, through Batman of all people, Bart had been almost suspiciously absent. No texts, or stupid phone calls in the middle of the night when Bart was pretending to be asleep. He hadn't made a single Young Justice meetup, and all of their attempts to contact him were met with silence or yes/no responses. It had gotten so bad that Tim had hacked into Bart's school to see if he was sick or something, but aside from the first week, which could easily be explained as Bart spending time with the now recovered Max, he had been to school every day without fail.

Tim had already passed the point of admitting he missed his younger friend out loud. Though he'd only admitted this to Kon, who he knew felt the same way. The rest of the team was great, the girls were great, but it had been the three of them who had formed Young Justice, they had been the first. And though Tim and Kon were regularly considered to be best friends, and they were, neither of them felt quite right without the energetic presence of Bart, whether he was Impulse or not, meeting up outside costume had been fun as well. (though the Batman could never know of that!)

"So? Are we going on a little trip or what?" Kon asked, flinging himself down beside Tim and jostling him.

Tim was silent, considering. Kon nudged him when he took longer than two seconds to reach his decision. "It has been a long time." he allowed.

Kon nodded. "Yup. He's avoiding us. I want to know why."

"Yeah." Tim breathed, realising in that moment just how unhappy he felt. "Yeah, come on." He shut his laptop down and set it aside, not caring about the gibberish he'd been typing before. Kon grinned, but there was a grimness behind it, like he was gearing up for a fight he knew he might not win. It was, Tim noted absently, how he had been feeling himself lately. Like there was a problem he couldn't fix.

They needed to talk to Bart.

~*~*~*~*~

Max blinked at them in surprise when he opened the door to find them standing on his doorstep, out of costume and with their eyes hidden behind sunglasses like it would protect their identities from him. As if they weren’t already aware of the 500 photo’s of them on Bart's phone and computer and plastered across his room both in and out of costume. Only his superspeed stopping anyone else from noticing them when his normal friends were over.

They didn’t often come to visit, for the sake f their secret identities. It was their main golden rule that they would not visit each other and rose suspicion as to who they were.

“Hello boys.” Max greeted, sounding tired despite his obvious good health. “Here to see Bart?”

“Uh, yes sir.” Kon said awkwardly.

“It’s good to see you better Max.” Tim intoned politely, his eyes flicking over the older man and wondering how much of his tiredness was connected with Bart. “But yes, we are here to see Bart. He hasn’t been to the club in a few weeks and we were worried he was sick or something.”

Max glanced behind him, towards where Tim knew Bart’s room was, and said softly, low enough that most would not have picked it up. “Or something.” Tim met Kon’s startled eyes, and when Max turned back and smiled what was obviously a fake smile Tim knew there was definitely something wrong. “Come on in boys. He’s in his room doing homework.”

The boys trailed into the house, Kon hunched his shoulders a bit, a worried frown on his face, and Tim had to stop himself from asking Max to tell them everything. It would be better if they got it out of Bart. He was starting to think he really wasn’t going to like the answers.

~*~*~*~*~

Bart was sitting at his desk when they entered, doing homework at normal speed. He had often complained that the whole process of doing anything at normal speed was agonizing , and when he actually sat down to think about it, Tim could understand how that might be. Bart had lived his whole life before coming here at top speed, he hadn't needed to slow down for anyone else, because there was no one else to slow down for.

That he could at all was amazing.

“Yo, Bart!” Kon said, and Tim elbowed him hard, he had hoped for more time studying the oblivious speedster before he had the chance to think and hide what he was feeling.

Bart startled, dropping his pencil and turned, his jaw dropping when he saw them, and in that one second before his brain kicked into gear and he was darting around the room, trying to hide the pictures Tim had already seen; Tim was almost positive there was fear in his eyes. But then there was a *whoosh* of air and Bart was in front of them, grinning in that sort of stupid way he had.

Tim clenched his teeth seeing it for the fake it was now, and wondering how long it had been since he’d seen the real thing. Not since before Max fell sick.

“Hi guys! Didn't expect a visit or anything. Everything OK? Got any monsters to fight or-“ he suddenly cut himself off, and Tim and Kon shared a confused look. But they’d gotten almost used to Bart trying to be more ‘considerate’ recently, but still, he had never cut himself off so completely before. Bart was biting his lip like he was trying very hard not to let all the questions fall from him that he wanted.

"You haven't been to meetings in a while Bart, we were just checking to make sure you were OK." Tim said, still frowning deeply, trying to piece together the clues Bart was giving them.

"Yeah, it would have sucked if you'd been kidnapped and we hadn't noticed and-" Tim elbowed Kon hard in the ribs as Bart's face went suddenly pale, for the briefest of moments, before he was suddenly in motion. He flitted about the room and spoke too fast and too loud and it was all Kon could do to manage to catch him as he sped past, jerking the speedster to a stop.

Tim moved to stand in front of Bart then, reaching out to grab his chin. “Do not Vibrate.” He said in his most commanding tone, and felt the tremors under his fingers lessen to a more normal state.

Bart, who was terrible at hiding his emotions, looked absolutely wrecked, and didn't seem able to push past it and into a smile. He experienced emotions like he did everything else, so when he was angry it was over and done with in seconds, rather than hours or days, so for him to look so absolutely devastated, this was something so much bigger.

There was silence, Bart looking at a loss for them, and Tim used the time to put together the truth. His mouth thinned as he saw Bart’s face suddenly drop into something sad. And just as he thought he’d grasped what had happened Bart spoke, slow and sad.

“I know you liked it better when he was here. Max said I couldn't get him back to replace me here;” there was a note of relief in his voice there that made something heavy settle in Tim’s stomach, and from Kon’s horrified expression he felt it to. “But we could always get him back for the team? He’d come back for that, and you could have-“

“Bart stop!” Kon cried out them, making himself let go of Bark before he ended up hurting him accidentally.

Bart fell silent, backing away from them and dropping into his seat, there was something incredibly young and vulnerable about him when he looked at them, nothing like his normal self at all.

Time moved forward and knelt in front of his young friend. “Bart. I need you tell me what happened. Everything.”

Bart’s eyes darted between them and he looked about to get up and run, so Tim placed a hand on his knee, and suddenly Bart just curled in on himself.

“After Max got sick… I don’t know exactly when, but Inertia… He’s my… clone I think? He kidnapped me and trapped me in the virtual reality world I’d grown up in. And he… he took my place here.”

“Took your place?” Tim asked, working hard to keep his face neutral, and not looking at Kon, who he knew was alternating between the desire to kill something and cry. He was sort of emotional like that. 

Bart nodded, not looking at either of them. “It was for a long time. I only got back when Max got better. I figured out I was supposed to be here.”

Tim sat back, there was more, so much more, and he thought back to the weeks when Bart had changed from that happy-go-lucky boy and into a much more efficient superhero and he cursed himself that he hadn't seen it. That he’d allowed himself to be too busy to see it. Bart could have been trapped in that virtual world forever and none of them would have ever known.

That frightened Tim.

Then Bart said something that frightened him even more.

“And I know he was better than me in... well, everything. He was a better student, a better superhero and a better... a better son. No matter what Max and Helen and Wally say. And I know you probably liked him better even though you didn't know it wasn't me.” Then Bart looked up, eyes darting between them, and he must have read from their expressions how they felt about being duped like that and he hastened to add. “It's OK that you didn't realise! You were probably busy, and I've thought about it a lot and I realised that Inertia is really good at giving people what they want. And if you give people what they want then they're happy.” he smiled then, like he'd uncovered the secret of the universe.

Tim frown deeply then and leaned forward, resting both hands on Bart's knees and catching his golden gaze and holding it. “Is that what you're doing? Giving people what you think they want?”

“Tim what-?” Kon began, but fell silent when Bart answered softly.

“I'm trying to give people what I know they want.”

“So what?” Tim pressed. “You're sitting at home, doing your homework at normal person speed. You're doing exactly what Max tells you to do? You're avoiding coming to meetings with us? Because why? You think we don't want you there? There hasn't been a single Impulse sighting recently, nothing on the news, except for a few bad guys claiming Impulse stopped them. Who are you doing that for? The Flash? Batman? Some other hero that thinks you're supposed to be serious and low key?”

Bart opened his mouth, but Tim kept talking, not want to hear his explanations right now. “You think that doing this is making people happy? Max is sitting in the living-room right now worried sick about you. Kon and I broke all the rules of Young Justice to come here to find out what's wrong with you, because we haven't seen you in weeks... or months I suppose, and... and...” He trailed off and pushed back, getting to his feet and running his hands through his hair, unable to say what he needed to.

Kon was still silent, and Tim didn't know if it was because he couldn't think of anything to say or he had too much and didn't know where to start. There was a strained silence, before Bart got to his feet, his eyes flashing in anger.

“What's wrong with me trying to change?” he demanded to know. “I'm not stupid you know, even if you all think I am. I... Nobody noticed I wasn't me. Nobody. And I can understand that. I can. Max was sick, Wally doesn't spend time with me too much because I annoy him, Helen was worried about Max. I haven't seen grandma since she took me here. And Every time we meet up I do something stupid and annoying and I get yelled at or you ignore me. So I get it. Inertia came and suddenly I was doing what I was meant to, I was listening more, and being all insightful and whatever. I was a better superhero, and you didn't have to put up with me messing about.”

Tim felt it like a blow to the gut when he saw Bart was crying, Bart never cried.

“And it's fine. It's fine that you all preferred him. I understand why you did. And I tried to get Wally to help me bring him back, I said I'd go away if it would make things better. But they all, Max and Wally and Helen, they all said they wouldn't, and that they didn't want him here. And they keep being nice and telling me they love me, and they don't want me to change... But they have to be lying? Right? Because nobody noticed I wasn't me? Right?”

He stood there, fisting the tears out of his eyes and glaring defiantly at them, daring them to disagree.

Tim stood, frozen in indecision. But thankfully Kon was better at this end of things than he was, and the bigger boy strode forward and grabbed Bart into a hug, not one of his friendly half hugs, but a full on bear hug.

Bart struggled with him, and eventually vibrated out of his hold. “No!” he cried out. “No more hugs! No more 'We're sorry we didn't notice.' and 'We like you just the way you are'!” Bart glared. “Stop trying to make it up to me. I don't want anybody to make me feel better! I just want you to be happy! Why can't everyone just be happy?” He was shouting then.

“Did you ever stop to think that nobodies happy right now because you're not?” Kon shouted back. “I mean Bart... Yeah we didn't notice it wasn't you, and we should have. And yeah, if everyone else feels like I do right now, then they're going to feel guilty about that for a really long time. But trying to make yourself into somebody else because you think that's what everybody wants is... it's making you unhappy man. And I don't think you've ever noticed it, but none of us like it when you're not happy.”

Bart looked shocked then. “I...”

“You're allowed to be angry Bart.” Tim interjected suddenly, it finally clicking what felt wrong about this whole thing. Bart was trying to hard to be understanding. “You're allowed to be angry with us.”

Bart crumpled, just dropped, and Kon only just managed t grab him to keep him upright. The speedster looked at Tim, his eyes pleading. 

“You're allowed to be angry.” Tim repeated. “At Me, Kon and the rest of the team. At Wally and your Grandma. Even at Helen and Max.”

Bart shook his head and Tim could see the agony of indecision in his golden eyes. It was obvious now, he could be annoyed at them, and the adults, he could moan and complain about how annoying they were and all their rules, and how they all yelled at him and things like that. But being actually angry at them, for something like this... for what? For preferring the good child who did as he was told and behaved to the one that screwed up all the time? Tim could see it now, it was the same insecurity that ate away at him, and he felt sick that he hadn't noticed it before.

Or maybe it never had been there before. Bart had never really been compared to anyone before. Had never found himself wanting in any way. Tim was honestly starting to think there might not be a way to fix this. If this was how Bart felt after six weeks, then it might be how he kept feeling from now on.

"Well, we miss you. The real you, a lot." he heard himself say, which wasn't what he'd been thinking about saying. "And we want you to come back to the team. Not just to help us fight monsters, or things like that, but because we all miss you and we want to hang out with you." he looked at Kon, still holding Bart up, hugging him. "And until you decide to come back, we'll just have to keep coming over to see you."

Bart looked desperately confused, and Tim could understand that. Every time Bart showed up to see any of the Young Justice team in the past he's been hissed at and yelled at and told not to just stop by unannounced for the sake of their identities. "But why?" he asked, and there was something in his voice that wanted to believe them.

Kon hugged him again from behind, leaning his chin on his head. "Because we missed you short stuff, and we want to spend time with you."

Tim nodded. "So, we're going to go now and let you think about it." Tim nodded to Kon, hoping the other boy could read his thoughts just this once. They needed to talk about this. Tim needed to think about it all, get his own thoughts in order, and then he needed to find the clone or twin or whatever had kidnapped and replaced Bart and he had to exact some form on vengeance on it.

Kon gave Bart another hug before letting go, ruffling his wild hair and smiled at him before they both left, nodding to Max as they did.


End file.
